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Stephen Liska – "The Crazies" (1973)

Actor Stephen Liska, who played dastardly Voyager Drake in 2 episodes of Voyagers! – had his first small role (At least a credited one) in one of George Romero's rare non-zombie films, "The Crazies." He looks all of 22 or 23 years old and he's listed as "Soldier at the house."

Honestly, he's one of the only soldiers with the brains to question the faulty authority after the Army swarms in to quarantine an entire Pennsylvania town infected with "The Crazies" from a tainted water supply – at least he voices his concern to his fellow Soldiers in the house. Nobody is given proper information or knows what's going on. Imagine the rumor mill and panic in the Internet age? Because of the Government's mishandling of the epidemic, the Soldiers seem to suffer the most in this movie.

I'd breezed through Stephen Liska's scene late at night, then paused – the strong face and pitch black hair, (that shine looks gorgeous!) the voice…did I just see Voyager Drake? – I went back over the scene and proved it to myself then did the IMDB check. I was correct!

In case you need more convincing – Here's Drake gearing up to commit all sorts of slander and perjury against Voyager Bogg. – "The Trial of Phineas Bogg"

And here he is smugly looking on in a London Pub as Bogg gets caught up in a bar fight. – "Jack's Back."

I'd have loved Stephen's character to get more screen-time in this dreary socio-political film. He had some depth.

The sad thing about this story is that if you watch/read the daily news today, people behave like this and worse WITHOUT having an "infectious disease." The only thing that separates the real world from this movie is "The Crazies" will kill you fast - either by letting the virus run its course, getting attacked by another crazie who one-ups your crazy, or by petrified non-infected citizens fighting for their lives or putting you out of your misery. "The Crazies" was remade in 2010 and of course the modern version is far more creepy and gross-out.